The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is seeking legal advice in its ongoing battle with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to have the controversial recommendations of its Governance Review report implemented.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley said even though the WICB had taken a hardline stance against CARICOM, the regional prime ministerial grouping did not intend to back down and was pursuing other avenues.
“There has been no change. The West Indies Cricket Board has taken the position that they faced down Prime Minister Patterson and the Patterson Report, they now faced down Prime Minister (Keith) Mitchell and the CARICOM Sub-Committee and now the board has made it quite clear they won’t cooperate with any attempt to reform themselves and save West Indies cricket,” Rowley said during a television interview.
Rowley said they have asked the CARCIOM Secretariat to get legal advice and support to determine what is the legal position with this product called West Indies cricket?
“The question arises with the people of the Caribbean, what is West Indies cricket? And how did this board get this product which they are marketing now and is being so bombastic in talking to the regional leaders,” he added.
“If any action against the WICB is possible, then one needs to know what is the basis for the action and whether we like it or not, cricket is important in the region and will remain an important conversation,” the prime minister said.
A CARICOM-commissioned investigative panel headed by UWI Cave Hill Principal Professor Eudine Barriteau, last November recommended the “immediate dissolution” of the WICB — a proposal which has since been rejected by the embattled board as an “unnecessary and intrusive demand.”
